Courante

Courante

The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era.

Courante rhythm[1].

Modern usage will sometimes use the different spellings to distinguish types of courante (Italian spelling for the Italian dance, etc.), but in the original sources spellings were inconsistent. (In the Partitas of the Clavierübung, Bach use the different spellings courante and corrente to differentiate between the French and Italian styles, respectively.)[2] However, in Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach by Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne, the courante and corrente are given separate chapters and treated as distinct dances.[3] The courante had the slowest tempo of all French court dances, and was described by Mattheson, Quantz and Rousseau as grave and majestic.[4] In Bach's unaccompanied Partita for Violin No. 2 the first movement (titled Allemanda) begins as if in 3/4 time in a manner one might initially perform and hear as a courante. The second movement is titled corrente and is rather lively. On the other hand, many "courante" movements by Bach are actually correntes as well: in the original engraving of the keyboard Partitas, movements are clearly labelled either "corrente" or "courante", but editors have frequently ignored the distinction.[5] Although an indication of faster tempo appears to exist in Baroque composer Georg Muffat's instructions on Lullian bowing, his reference to the "rapid tempo of courantes" is a confusion in translation. A more literal translation of the text indicates only "the speed of the movement of the notes."[6]

Another[vague] courante rhythm[1].

Courante literally means running, and in the later Renaissance the courante was danced with fast running and jumping steps, as described by Thoinot Arbeau.

In Der vollkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg, 1739), Johann Mattheson wrote that, "The motion of a courante is chiefly characterized by the passion or mood of sweet expectation. For there is something heartfelt, something longing and also gratifying, in this melody: clearly music on which hopes are built."[7]

The courante was most commonly used in the baroque period. During this period, there were two types of courante: French and Italian. In a Baroque dance suite, an Italian or French courante typically comes between the allemande and the sarabande, making it the second or third movement. The French type is usually notated in 3/2 or 6/4, occasionally alternating between the two meters; the Italian type, on the other hand, is a significantly faster dance. In the Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732), Johann Gottfried Walther wrote that the rhythm of the courante is "absolutely the most serious one can find."[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Alfred Blatter, Revisiting Music Theory: A Guide to the Practice (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 28. ISBN 0415974402.
  2. ^ Alfred Dürr, preface to Johann Sebastian Bach, Französische Suiten: die verzierte Fassung / The French Suites: Embellished Version: BWV 812–817, new, revised edition, edited by Alfred Dürr. Bärenreiter Urtext (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1980).
  3. ^ Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne, Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach, expanded edition. Music: Scholarship and Performance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001) ISBN 0253339367 (cloth); ISBN 0253214645 (pbk); pp. 114-142.
  4. ^ Meredith Ellis Little and Suzanne G. Cusick, "Courante", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
  5. ^ Meredith Ellis Little and Suzanne G. Cusick, "Courante", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
  6. ^ Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne, Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach, expanded edition (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001) p. 115. ISBN 0253339367 (cloth); ISBN 0253214645 (pbk).
  7. ^ Quoted in Alfred Dürr, preface to Johann Sebastian Bach, Französische Suiten: die verzierte Fassung / The French Suites: Embellished Version: BWV 812–817, new, revised edition, edited by Alfred Dürr. Bärenreiter Urtext (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1980).
  8. ^ Quoted in Alfred Dürr, preface to Johann Sebastian Bach, Französische Suiten: die verzierte Fassung / The French Suites: Embellished Version: BWV 812–817, new, revised edition, edited by Alfred Dürr. Bärenreiter Urtext (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1980).

Further reading



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  • courante — 1. (kou ran t ) s. f. 1°   Ancienne danse très grave, qui se dansait sur un air à trois temps. Elle commençait par des révérences, après quoi le danseur et la danseuse décrivaient en pas de courante une figure réglée qui formait une sorte d… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • courante — COURANTE. sub. fém. Espèce de danse grave. Courante simple. Courante figurée. Danser une courante. Mener une courante. f♛/b] Il signifie aussi Le chant sur lequel on mesure les pas d une courante. Faire une courante. Composer une courante. Jouer… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française 1798

  • courante — Courante. s. f. Est une espece de danse. Courante simple. courante figurée. danser une courante. mener une courante. Il signifie aussi, Le chant sur lequel on mesure les pas d une courante. Faire une courante. composer une courante. jouer une… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Courante — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda La courante, también llamada corrente , coranto o corant es el nombre dado a un familia de danzas ternarias de finales del Renacimiento y principios del período Barroco. Actualmente se suelen usar estos distintos… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Courante — (franz., spr. kurāngt , ital. Corrente, auch Coranto), eine ältere, schon im 16. Jahrh. beliebte Tanzform im Tripeltakt, von lebhafter Bewegung ursprünglich mit Bevorzugung des Rhythmus und breiten Schlüssen später (zu B …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • courante — (izg. kurȃnt) m DEFINICIJA glazb. pov. francuski društveni ples brzog tempa (od 16. st.), stiliziran ulazi u umjetničku glazbu ETIMOLOGIJA fr.: trčeći ← courir: trčati …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • courante — [ko͞oränt′ko͞o ränt′] n. [Fr < courant, prp. of courir, to run, glide < L currere, to run: see CURRENT] 1. an old, lively French dance with running steps, or the music for this 2. a stylized dance of this type used as a movement in a… …   English World dictionary

  • Courante — En musique, la courante est une danse, morceau de coupe binaire avec reprises, à 3 temps, précédés d une levée, et de tempo assez vif (moins rapide toutefois que ce que suggère son nom). En poésie, c est un poème formé de deux strophes en vers… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • COURANTE — s. f. Espèce de danse grave. Courante simple. Courante figurée. Mener une courante. On ne danse plus la courante.   Il signifie aussi, L air sur lequel on dansait une courante. Composer une courante. Jouer une courante sur le violon …   Dictionnaire de l'Academie Francaise, 7eme edition (1835)

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